


Oils and Paints

by Liza_Taylor



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Honestly rated M because Sylvain is naked for about half of it, Love Confessions, Nude Modeling, Painting, Sylvain Jose Gautier Being An Idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:14:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liza_Taylor/pseuds/Liza_Taylor
Summary: Bernadetta is a famous painter. Starting her next series of portraits she asks Sylvain to be one of the models for it. He's all on board for it until it finally hits him that he would be modeling for her nude and it brings up the feelings he has been burying for Bernadetta since high school.Modern AU setting.
Relationships: Sylvain Jose Gautier/Bernadetta von Varley
Kudos: 42





	Oils and Paints

**Author's Note:**

> Another Sylbern idea I had mulling around my head that I just had to get down. I debated on releasing it since I was starting to tire by the end of it but decided to just go ahead and post it.

“Thanks again for helping me out Sylvain.”

“No problem Bernie.” Sylvain stepped into Bernie’s studio and despite being here many times over the years, he was still impressed by collection of art supplies, the shelves filled with tools he didn’t know the names of, and the easels with paintings in the various stages of being finished. Knowing her since high school, it was weird for him to think about his best friend being a famous painter.

Bernadetta von Varley, a master of her craft, her paintings selling a couple thousand dollars apiece. She started off with landscapes but gradually moved on to painting animals, close ups of objects and now, even people. She was also a master at mediums, using watercolors, acrylics, pastels, oils and other things he knew nothing about.

She pointed to the back of the studio where a curtain separated off a section. “I have robes of different sizes there. Once you get undressed you can put one on and come out when you’re ready. I have to get my easel and paints and stuff ready so take your time okay?”

He knew she was saying that for his own benefit. Bernie was meticulously organized, the type of person who was ready at least an hour in advance. It was sweet for her to say that for him though.

Sylvain headed behind the curtain and took a deep breath, his heart pounding way too heavy in his chest.

“Thanks for helping me out with this Sylvain. To be honest, I’ve been wanting to make a painting of you for a long time.”

“Oh really?” he said with a chuckle. “Is that why you became friends with me in high school? Just so you could immortalize me forever in one of your paintings?”

He could hear her let out a long sigh and he didn’t need to see her to know she had rolled her eyes. Despite his teasing, he had been the one to approach her. She had left behind a sketchbook in the school library and Sylvain had stumbled upon it. Her sketches were beautiful and lifelike. He had never seen anything like it before.

He found her a few days later in the library searching for the sketchbook and since then, they had built up an odd friendship. Well, an odd friendship for him at least. Sylvain had been a womanizer in high school and well, nothing had really changed for him since then.

That’s what made it even more ridiculous that his heart was pounding as he slowly took off his clothes and carefully folded them into a neat pile.

About a week ago, Bernie had asked if he wanted to be a model in her latest series. It wasn’t unveiled yet to the public but she was doing paintings based around the seven deadly sins, each one portrayed by a model in the nude, surrounded by elements that represented the sin.

“I’m going to be lust aren’t I?” he said with a sigh once she explained the concept to him.

“Well, uh, I mean, if you don’t want to then, it’s okay,” she stammered.

“I’m just teasing you Bernie.” He ruffled her hair. “I would be honored to be a model for one your portraits.”

Now he was wondering why he said yes. Sure, he knew in theory it was nude modeling but it finally hit him that this was _nude_ _modeling_. Holy crap, Bernie was going to see….everything! She was going to paint everything!

“Sylvain, you okay?” she called.

“Uh yeah!” he grabbed the robe and threw it on and reminded himself to breathe. This was fine, completely fine. Stepping out, he saw Bernie was already sitting behind her easel, a table next to her of supplies.

“You can sit in that chair.” She gestured to the chair in question. “I’m probably going to just do a quick sketch today to make sure I get the composition and stuff figured out.”

He took a deep breath and approached the chair in question. About halfway there, he realized he was probably going to need to disrobe for her.

As if sensing his hesitation, she looked up. “Sylvain if this is too weird…it’s okay. I can get someone else.”

“No, it’s okay. I just need a second.” He gave her a wry grin. “I think this is the first time you’re going to see me naked. Most girls have to work harder to get me to undress for them.”

She rolled her eyes.

Thankfully his quip seemed to calm him down as he slipped off the robe and rested it on the small table.

“If it gets too cold in here tell me, although I know you do way better with the cold than me.”

Normally Sylvain would have made a comment about hugging Bernie to warm her up but that felt a little inappropriate in the current situation.

“Keep your legs spread out a little,” she instructed as he sat down. “And slouch a bit, arms out a bit more. No, that’s too much, pull them in a bit, have one on your stomach.”

“Like this?” he asked. His face was flushing red, as he realized this meant he was on full display for her. However it was like she was oblivious to his embarrassment as she got straight to work sketching. He always noticed when she was in the zone, she tended to squint more, sometimes her tongue sticking out slightly in the corner of her mouth. Her hand was flying across the canvas, she seemingly lost in her own world.

The clock on the wall ticked as the time slowly passed. He didn’t really feel it pass though, his focus on watching Bernie as she did her drawing. She was really an artist, he realized. Sure, he had seen her work on a few sketches here and there but that was nothing compared to what he was seeing now. It was like a passion was rushing through her, her hand almost unable to keep up with the idea in her head. He realized if she had not asked him to do this, he might never have seen this side to her.

“You ready for a break Sylvain?”

He blinked, realizing that she was talking to him. “A break?”

“Yeah, you’re probably a bit stiff from sitting in that position for so long.” She hopped off the easel and stretched her arms over her head. “I got the basic sketch down so it’s fine. You can throw on the robe and walk around a bit.”

He stood and realized that she was right. After shrugging on the robe, he walked over to look at her easel, curious to see what she had drawn so far. It was a rough sketch, the forms barely there but he could make out that he was in the middle of the canvas in that half slouched position.

“I’m going to have creatures coming down from above. Like, thematically they will look like angels, but more of a fallen variety.” Bernadetta gestured to the area she was talking about. “They’re going to look grotesque and whatnot.”

“So I’m going to be having a good time with weird angel creatures, got it.” He thought it over. “I wonder how that would even go…”

“Sylvain!” She lightly hit his arm.

He ducked away, chuckling. “Sorry, sorry. Couldn’t help it. This is your art though, and I should take it seriously.”

“Well you don’t have to,” she stammered. “This is a painting of you so you can say your opinion if you want.”

“Sure but it’s your art and I know how hard you work on it. Even when we were in high school you were so serious about it…” He trailed off, realizing how close he was to her, half leaning over her to see her drawing. Sure he was touchy feely with her, they were pretty close but there was something different about him being naked under the robe…

Sylvain pulled away, his face tinged with red. “Anyway, I think I’m good for now. You ready to keep going?”

***

Over the next couple of days, Sylvain took a few hours of his day to go visit Bernie in her studio to pose for his portrait. She had shifted from the sketch layer and started to do the oil painting. She wanted to finish painting him before working on the other details in the piece.

That was fine and dandy and all, but being around Bernie naked and well, exposed to her in every way possible, his thoughts were slipping into an unsavory direction. Not for a lack of trying on his part. Now that he was getting used to the whole modeling thing, his mind was beginning to wander while she painted. At first he thought about mundane things, what to eat later today, what was his schedule for the rest of the week but since he was around Bernie, his thoughts started slipping to her.

Fun experiences they had during their high school days, them keeping in contact through college although they barely got to see each other. And then how they reconnected after that was over, their friendship almost returning to where it was before. He realized he always had found her smile cute, the way she focused on the details, finding beauty in the mundane.

“Shoot.”

He blinked and came back to himself and saw Bernie hop off her stool. “Ran out of paint. You can take a break for a bit Sylvain.” She hurried over to one of the shelves.

Sylvain got up and stretched his arms over his head. He was about to put on the robe when he noticed Bernie standing on her tiptoes, reaching for some paint tubes on a higher shelf. He came up behind her and leaned against the shelf as he grabbed the bin of paint. “Here you go Bernie.”

“Thanks.” She took it from him and suddenly seemed startled, her eyes going wide as she clutched the paint tubes against her chest, her back against the shelves.

For a moment he was confused until he realized he was almost pinning her to the wall. Naked. “Did it really take you until now to realize I’m a guy?” he said with a sigh.

“Uh, no, not really…” Her eyes shifted down and then she looked straight up at his face, the sudden shift in her attention almost comical. “I mean…you’re Sylvain,” she stammered.

He was Sylvain wasn’t he? His hands curled into fists, and a part of him wondered why that answer bothered him so much and why he was staring at her partly opened lips.

“Uh Sylvain, I should probably get back to work. So you don’t have to keep coming here every day.”

He looked down at her paint speckled fingers and there was even a mark of red on a cheek. Despite how neat she kept her supplies, she was usually a mess by the end of a painting session. He lifted a hand gently rubbed the mark on her cheek but it didn’t go away.

“Sylvain…what are you…”

He leaned in and kissed her on the lips.

Sylvain jerked back, his brain finally catching up to what he was doing. “Shit, crap, sorry Bernie.” He took a few steps away back, a hand over his mouth.

Bernie just looked at him wide-eyed. “Sylvain…”

“My fault, the moment…” Crap, he was still naked! He didn’t know what would be worse, covering himself or not. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen everything before. Heck, she had been painting his junk during their last meeting. “I think we should finish early today,” he mumbled.

“Uh….yeah…”

He rushed behind the curtain to put on his clothes.

***

Sylvain fell onto his bed, burying his face in his pillow.

He was a dumbass! The worst dumbass ever in the history of dumbasses. He kissed Bernie! He didn’t know what was worse, him kissing her or him doing it naked. This had to be breaking some sort of protocol with nude modeling right?!

He rolled over and stared at the framed sketch on his wall. A pencil sketch Bernie drew of him back in high school. He had been looking at the sky when Bernie suddenly yelled at him to not move. The one thing that really drew him to the sketch was how she drew his eyes. Instead of making them carefree, she had made them forlorn and tired. Of course his friends commented on how out of place it looked on him.

Bernie had stammered an excuse, something about how she liked to add her own spin to a drawing. Sylvain knew the truth though. Even back then she was able to see the real him, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

That’s probably why he….

He tore his eyes away from the picture and buried his face into his pillow again. It was something he had been denying for a long time. Maybe that was partially why his womanizing had gotten worse over the years, he was trying to deny the feelings welling up in him. Bernie had a goal in life and she was obviously not one for romance and he was content with just being her friend.

And he had to ruin everything by kissing her.

What in the world was he supposed to do? Originally he was supposed to go back to her studio tomorrow for another session. Could he even go back there? Could he be naked and vulnerable for her without thinking about…

Nope. He wasn’t even going to go there. How was he going to be able to manage seeing her tomorrow?

***

Sylvian awkwardly entered the studio. Bernie sat on her stool, the half finished painting in front of her. From here, he could see the amount of work she had already put into it. He was half done, his facial expression forlorn as he looked up at the blank area above him. There were a few faint sketches of where the fallen angels would go but nothing concrete yet.

“Uh, sorry for yesterday,” he murmured.

“It’s okay…” She looked down at her feet and wiggled her toes. Another quirk of hers, she couldn’t paint with shoes on.

Sylvain rested his hand on the back of his neck. “I…I don’t want this to uh, come between us and all. It was really an in the moment sort of thing, like the moment was right and stuff. Shouldn’t have done that though. Sorry about it Bernie, just throw that in the past.”

“In the past huh…” She murmured.

“Yeah, in the past,” he said quickly.

“Okay, if you say so…” She turned and picked up her paintbrush. “If you can get ready, we can start today’s session today.”

“Yeah…” The feeling in the room was usually bright and sunny, Bernie joking with him, like always not rising to his quips. It felt so sour now thought, a weight pressing down on them, stifling the happy feelings from earlier.

He slipped behind the curtain and slowly stripped. When he came out, Bernie didn’t even look at him, she seemingly busy fiddling with one of her brushes. As he sat down in the chair, she gave her usual instructions to adjust his posture but they were curt and to the point, nothing of her usual warmth or charm.

Even as she painted he could tell something was wrong. Her tongue didn’t stick out of the side of her mouth like it usually did, she spent more time behind her easel than looking at him for reference.

Damn it, this was his fault. From what he knew, Bernie had never been in a relationship, her focus had always been art. Was that her first kiss? He knew girls found that stuff important. Of course he had to be the asshole that took it away from her.

“Let’s take a break for a bit,” she muttered.

He got up from the chair and after throwing on the robe, he walked over to her. “Bernie…”

“Hmm, what is it Sylvain?” She cleaned her hands and pulled her phone out of her pocket and seemed to be browsing social media. She didn’t even look up at him.

Damn it. “Bernie…”

“Hmmm?” She looked up at him for a moment before looking down at her phone.

Sylvain glanced at the painting. It was odd but he could tell what she added today, details on one his arms, didn’t have the same level of love and attention as everything else she had painted so far. “Bernie, do you think it would be better to just scrape this painting?”

“Huh?” Her phone clattered to the ground between them.

Sylvain rested his hand on the back of his neck. “I know this is probably super awkward for you now and I mean I get it and I also get that you probably don’t want to see me again cause of course what kind of friend does something like that right?”

She reached out and grabbed the edge of his sleeve as he tried to move away from her.

“Bernie?”

“Sylvain, do you see me as a woman?” She looked up at him with those bright gray eyes.

“Huh?” He stared at her blankly, the question feeling more like a trap with no right answer.

Her delicate fingers tightened on his sleeve. “Do you see me as a woman or just as a painter?”

“You’re you Bernie.”

“That’s…” She pulled her hand away and rested it in her lap.

Hang on, why did he feel like he answered wrong somewhere? “Bernie…”

She turned back to her painting. “I’m okay with continuing.”

Was she though? He knew how much pride she had in her work and what she added today didn’t really show it. However, who was he to say how she should paint her works?

He stepped away and Bernie leaned forward to grab her phone from the ground. She yelped, her foot catching on one of the rungs of the stool and she pitched forward. By the time Sylvain turned around, his arms out to catch her, she had tumbled to the ground, her stool clattering behind her.

She sat on her knees and stared at the ground .

“Holy crap Bernie, you okay? That didn’t sound good.” He kneeled and saw tears were prickling out of the corners of her eyes. “Did you hit something Bernie?”

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “It…it’s nothing.” 

“It’s obviously not nothing since you are tearing up. Was it your knee? Let me see.”

“No!” She swatted away the hand. Seeing the hurt look on his face, she looked away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out that way.”

Sylvain rubbed the back of his head. “It’s okay. I know I can be tactless at times. Especially after doing _that_ to you.”

She winced and Sylvain wished he hadn’t brought it up again. Nothing good ever seemed to come out of his big mouth.

“Have you ever wanted to kiss me before? Before yesterday I mean.”

Sylvain blinked, her words taking a second for him to process. “What? Hang on.”

Her gray eyes were filled with that stubborn determination he knew all to well and it was not tamed by the tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes.

“I…” What in the world should he say? Lie and say no? Admit it that he’s wanted to kiss her since high school? Wait, why would she even ask him this question in the first place?

“Forgot it, sorry,” she mumbled. She grabbed her phone and shoved it in her pocket.

Before she could stand, Sylvain grabbed her wrist. “Hang on. Your question just shocked me. Why are you asking it?”

“N…no reason,” she stammered, her face taking on a hint of red.

Wait a minute. He tilted his head slightly as he regarded her. Those darting eyes, the fact she did not pull away or make it seem like a joke. “Bernie, wait you…”

“Ack! Don’t say it!” she yelled. She pulled her hand away from his grip and put both hands over her ears. “Lalala, can’t hear you!”

No way. Was there a chance he was reading this wrong? Probably. Did he want to take the chance on possibility he was right? “Bernie, I’ve liked you since high school.”

“Lalalala…” She trailed off and stared at him dumbly. “Huh? You…what?”

“Since high school.” He cleared his throat, not like how red his face probably was in the moment. Sylvain ran his fingers through his hair to give him an excuse to do something, anything besides think about the fact he said the words that he had been holding back for years.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Huh? Well cause you were all about art and stuff, you were so focused on getting into a good art school and you didn’t really seem to care about romance in general and well…” He was not a good person back then. He had sex with any girl that wanted to, the way he treated them was atrocious. Sure, he was never like that with Bernie or Ingrid, they were his friends but that didn’t change the fact of what he did.

“I see…” she said softly.

“You see?” Out of everything she wasn’t expecting her to say something like that. He also wasn’t expecting her to crawl towards him, put her hands on his shoulders and kiss him. Now it was his turn to stare at her blankly as she pulled away. “What…Bernie, what are you….” He rested his knuckle against his lips as he struggled to process what had just happened.

“I…I was thinking I might confess once my painting was finished…” She fidgeted, picking at the skin of her fingernail. “When it was in the gallery and stuff.”

“You were going to…” He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to really take in what she said. “You were going to confess to me…” For the love of everything holy, why was he such a dumbass? He grabbed her wrist and pulled her into him, so she was lying on his chest and he could hug her and bury his face into her shoulder.

“S...Sylvain!?” she said with a muffled cry into his shoulder.

What would have happened if he confessed sooner? Could all of this been avoided in the first place? Holy crap, wait, he was hugging her when he was just in a robe. He was practically naked! He released her. “Sorry Bernie.” Normally he wouldn’t have cared too much but this was Bernie and this was her art studio. “You have a painting to do right?”

“Oh…right…” She looked at the painting on the easel. “I should probably get to that.”

He lightly kissed her on the cheek. “Maybe after you’re done with today, we could do another kind of painting…with just the two of us? In a different room?”

She blushed and stood. “M…Maybe but I have a painting to work on now if I’m going to get done in time for the deadline.”

Sylvain got up. “Of course, we wouldn’t want that.” He quickly walked back to the chair and settled in place after disrobing.

“What’s with that grin?” she asked as she set her stool upright and sat down.

“Just thinking of later, that’s all.”

She rolled her eyes. “Really Sylvain? Can’t you ever get your mind out of the gutter?”

And there was the Bernie he knew and loved. 


End file.
